panic under water - I had serious problem

[mania]

It was my final exam for Advance Nitrox. One of the things I had to improve was OOA. Not the s-drill – this one is OK but swimming without air. The standard is that I have to swim 15 meters (49ft) without air to my partner.
That’s something I absolutely couldn’t do at the very beginning of the course. It’s not that my lungs are not capable - it’s my mind or rather subconscious. Maybe one of the reason is that years ago I almost drown, and it took me several years of fight with myself to go back to water – many in fact never came back and stayed afraid of water.
Anyway when my instructor found out that I have a serious problem with it first he set the distance on the surface and asked me to walk it slowly. I did it. But still couldn’t do that uw. So for the last month and a half I was practicing OOA and finally I swam something around 10 – 12 meters (32 – 39 ft). Still not enough but better that the first time.
On one of the dives we were at 20 meters (65ft) doing the run time and at 9 meters we were supposed to change into the decompression gas (EAN50). So together with my partner we stopped. First he changed the gas – according to the procedure I was watching and making sure he is using the proper stage. Then it was my turn. I took the regulator out of the stage, took one breath and then opened the stage bottle (as the procedure says). And – nothing comes out it. I showed OOA sign to my partner and almost grabbed his regulator. So he quickly gave me his and when I took a breath there was water…OK, I knew I forgot to push the by pass so I spitted the water and took another breath. Water again. Instructor saw it, took my partners regulator out of my mouth and gave me his. In that moment I was already panicking. Again forgot to push the by pass so again I breathed only water. So I spitted instructor regulator and tried to find my primary one. Could not find it. Instructor gave me his regulator once again but at that time I was already coughing so my larynx was squeezed and I could not breath. The whole situation resulted in loosing buoyancy so finally we were at 6 meters (19ft) – because in a glance I saw the depth at my computer. At that moment I was completely out of air and lungs filled with water so I decided to ascend. At the same moment my instructor also decided to take me into surface. The whole event took something like 30 seconds. So it means that in my mind I’m still not convinced I can stay uw 30 seconds without gas…
In the evening somebody asked me whether I would go diving next day. I was not sure. But I did. One of the exercise I had to do was to swim OOA in zero visibility conditions (black mask). So I started swimming and in the same moment I had flash backs from the day before. I almost gave up. It took a lot of strong will to continue. But I did it.
Everything ended well but some conclusions:
1. We were changing gas rather quickly because we were already a bit late with our run time. So never ever do anything uw in a hurry
2. Probably I have turned the stage’s valve but not to the end and the regulator was providing air but at the very low level – too difficult for me to breathe.
3. My partner gave me his regulator up side down – and this was the reason why it was providing water not gas
4. Panic – that’s something that comes immediately and you are not capable of controlling it. It was the first time in my diving life that I was really panicking. There were just milliseconds when I was thinking rationally but that’s it. If not the instructor I would probably simply drown. And every next thing I was franticly trying to do I was doing wrong.
5. So the next and the most important conclusion – as buddy to a panicked diver we have to react immediately because panic grows in seconds.

I have passed the exam and got the Advanced Nitrox Diver under one condition. I have to keep on practicing OOA and have to prove to my instructor that I’m capable of swimming 50 meters (164ft) in the pool with fins.
Now I have to keep on practicing OOA. I know it’s important but I’m not 100% sure I can find demons that are in my head.
Mania

 

[Diver0001]

Wow, Mania, that's a very frightening experience, I'm glad you're ok.

Just a couple of questions and comments for you (not to pick you apart)

- When you opened your stage were you trained to open it and confirm that it was functioning before going off back-gas? Checking this is important and could have avoided the chain reaction that got you. (in that sense what you experienced was a classic cluster ******)

- When you realised the stage wasn't working, why were you unable to switch back to your back-gas?

- When you arrived at your 9 metre stop why didn't you switch to your longer plan?

When I took adv-ean we were made to note and discuss four plans before the dive:
(1) the planned run time
(2) the planned run time + 5 min
(3) the planned run time with lost deco gas
(4) the planned run time + 5 min with lost deco gas

Getting to the 9 metre stop a min or 2 behind schedule is common (maybe even a norm) among beginning tek divers who are accustomed to ascending along shore lines. In a perfect world you would never be late but realistically, having a longer planning to fall back to and a protocol for communicating it is wise, even necessary. You need to discuss how to go about changing plans with your buddy but what I use with my buddy is to make the gas-switch sign over my slate and then indicate with a number of fingers which plan I want.

for example you could have done this at your 9 metre stop:

- arrive at 9 metres, 2 minutes too late -- oops
- make gas switch sign and confirm
- buddy 1 gas swtich
- buddy 2 gas switch
- make plan switch sign (like gas switch over slate) and indicate 2 fingers for plan #2
- buddy confirms with same sign and give each other OK. (this isn't IANTD, this is the Rob Turner method -- the protocol isn't the point, the point is that you *have* a protocol for this)

Now you're on plan #2 and you have 3 minutes to spare.

The 9 metre stop is also special insofar that the 9, 6 and 4.5 metre stops can be extended almost indefinitely without incurring additional deco at the other shallow stops (don't just take my word for it, convince yourself of this).

Therefore feeling in a hurry at your 9 metre stop not only unnecessary, it's unnatural. This is the first stop during your ascent when you have all the time in the world. You can even take out your dive planner and work out the whole ascent again, write it down, discuss it for 10 minutes etc etc and still have extra time.

The point I'm trying to get across is that your lesson number 1 (never hurry) can be brought into practice by making use of your 9 metre stop to pause and slow everything down, especially if you've had a busy ascent up to that point. Another "trick" I use to slow myself down is to breathe once between everything I do. For example, opening up a stage looks like this

- check depth
- breathe
- stage on
- breathe
- deploy stage reg
- breathe
- 2nd stage check
- breathe
..... and so on.

It's written a little staccato but in reality, it looks nice and slow, fluid and controlled...like tai chi, all the steps follow your breathing. Without this I tend to do things too fast. It's something I had to learn when I became a divemaster to slow my demos down to less than fast-forward speed....

The last thing I'd like to offer to maybe increase your comfort in the water is to take a beginners course in free diving. I found out that I can easily hold on without breathing for 90 seconds and if I'm relaxed I can go almost 3 minutes. It's enormously comforting to explore these limits for yourself and I bet you'd be surprised how much problem solving time you really have.

I'll leave it at that for starters. I hope you don't take this as criticism but as input for how to avoid getting in the same state again.

Good luck with the rest of the course.

R..

 

[El Orans]

Glad to hear you're ok. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to dive in the Red Sea next year...

The last thing I'd like to offer to maybe increase your comfort in the water is to take a beginners course in free diving. I found out that I can easily hold on without breathing for 90 seconds and if I'm relaxed I can go almost 3 minutes. It's enormously comforting to explore these limits for yourself and I bet you'd be surprised how much problem solving time you really have.

It's on my to-do list.

Laurens

 

[EuphoriaII]

Glad it all worked out

 

[mania]

- When you opened your stage were you trained to open it and confirm that it was functioning before going off back-gas? Checking this is important and could have avoided the chain reaction that got you. (in that sense what you experienced was a classic cluster ******)

Yes I was trained and yes i did the checking procedure. According to the procedure I put the regulator into my mouth, took one breath (which was the only air in the hose as the stage was turned off) and - what I thought I turned it on. As i wrote either I didn't or I didn't open the valve enough and the regulator was giving a minimal amount of gas

- When you realised the stage wasn't working, why were you unable to switch back to your back-gas?

That's a good question - wish to know the answer. I don't know why I forgot that I have my back up....Simply buddy was too close and I showed the OOA sign

- When you arrived at your 9 metre stop why didn't you switch to your longer plan?

We had all emergency run times (bigger depth, longer bottom time, loosing the deco gas). Stupid ambition - we wanted to do the best and stick to the basic plan - this is why we were in a hurry

Without this I tend to do things too fast. It's something I had to learn when I became a divemaster to slow my demos down to less than fast-forward speed....

That's also my problem. In reality and uw I do things way too fast

The last thing I'd like to offer to maybe increase your comfort in the water is to take a beginners course in free diving. I found out that I can easily hold on without breathing for 90 seconds and if I'm relaxed I can go almost 3 minutes. It's enormously comforting to explore these limits for yourself and I bet you'd be surprised how much problem solving time you really have.

This is a very good idea and I'll take such course but in September (instructor I know that does such courses is not in Warsaw till the end of summer).

Thanks for all tips. The one about taking a breath between every activity sounds really good and it may slow me down.

Still several things I have to think about and analyse the whole "event" several times. So any advice is welcomed and would never be treated as critisism (BTW I did behave as an idiot so you are free to call me that )
Mania

 

[Diver0001]

(BTW I did behave as an idiot so you are free to call me that )

I don't believe you're an idiot at all. I believe, based on what you said here, that you should probably work on your comfort in the water more but you know that too. You always have but you're being confronted with it now because you're pushing boundaries. Just keep it slow and follow up on your own advice.

And for the record, cluster ****s are not limited to people like you and me. Some very experienced and very skillful divers have died from what started as small things. The video of Dave Shaw's last dive shows just how easy it can be to start making mistakes in time pressure, even for the experts.

R..

 

[pilot fish]

[[[3. My partner gave me his regulator up side down – and this was the reason why it was providing water not gas]]]]]]]mania

This is interesting because I never knew that breathing off somone's octo upside down would cause water to flow, not breathing gas? This is an importanat thing to know since it is probably easy to grab an octo and place it in your mouth upside down? I just learned something. This is helpful info. Thanks

Not sure any of us would have reacted any better than you did. At least these mistakes happened in training, not when it was the real thing. That's why they call it training.

 

[Sideband]

At that moment I was completely out of air and lungs filled with water so I decided to ascend.
Mania

Does this mean you are posting, "from beyond the grave"?

Joe

edit:
BTW,
Good on you for posting your experience. Task loading can be a ***** and task loading combined with a problem is worse. I still want to know about the lungs full of water bit.

 

[Snowbear]

This is interesting because I never knew that breathing off somone's octo upside down would cause water to flow, not breathing gas?

Not just "octo's" do this. Most regs will breathe wet when upside down. They still deliver breathing gas, just mixed with water. They are still breathable, you just have to be aware of it and use "airway control" to breathe slowly to get the gas past the water. That would be pretty difficult to do if you're already panicing, as mania was :11:

And mania - Diver0001 is right, you're not an idiot for panicing. You are smart for realizing you have a lot of work to do before being comfortable doing the dives you're training to do!

 

[cornfed]

BTW I did behave as an idiot so you are free to call me that

Thank you for sharing. Other people can learn a lot from this.